


Misspellings

by Eltrkbarbarella



Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Coffee Shops, Cute, Flirting, Fluff, M/M, Pining, Terrible Latte Art, Work Contains Fan(s) or Fandom(s), misspellings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-16
Updated: 2017-01-16
Packaged: 2018-09-18 01:21:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9358667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eltrkbarbarella/pseuds/Eltrkbarbarella
Summary: Sean likes treating himself to a nice cup of coffee from the local coffee shop from time to time, especially now that they've hired a cute new cashier. Too bad he can never spell Sean's name correctly…





	

**Author's Note:**

> I'm alive!
> 
> Yeah, I know it's been a while... But sometimes life happens, and stuff just catches up to you, and you can't ignore it. I really do have a problem with motivation, but I'm happy with how this fic turned out.
> 
> This fic is vaguely based on a Tumblr CoffeeShop!AU prompt where chacarter A is a barista that keeps misspelling character B's name, and character B starts mispronouncing their name in retaliation.
> 
>  
> 
> EDIT 1: Writingtomusic wrote a lovely review of this fanfic and you can find it [HERE](https://writingtomusic.wordpress.com/2017/03/12/paige-reviews-fanfiction-misspellings-eltrkbarbarella/). Go check out her blog, it's pretty cool!
> 
> EDIT 2: HOLY SHIT GUYS IT HAPPENED IN REAL LIFE!!! Someone misspelled Jack's name and he posted a picture of it on his Instagram [HERE!!!](https://www.instagram.com/p/BRm6D-7hSE-/?taken-by=jacksepticeye) I am freaking out about it!!

Just to be clear: Sean is not a hipster.  
  
Yeah, he owns a lot of skinny jeans, he dyes his hair bright green, and he may have a bit of a weakness to quirky indie games, but a hipster? No, not Sean.  
  
Being borderline addicted to coffee _really_ doesn’t help his case.  
  
You can’t really blame him though! YouTube is a merciless mistress and there are only so many hours in a day. If he wants to keep his content coming two times a day, every day of the week, like clockwork, while still maintaining his contact with the SeanSepticEye community in his social media, he needs a little help from the caffeine fairy every now and then.  
  
The five dirty mugs scattered around his recording space are a testament of how he can perfectly manage brewing his own at home. But sometimes he just likes to feel a little fancy. On really special days, when he allows himself a treat, Sean goes into town to pick up artistically detailed concoctions. It depends on the day, really. Maybe a nice latte with a flower drawn with foam, maybe a frappuccino with a mountain of whipped cream on top.  
  
These days Sean has been finding himself inside a particular café more and more often. Sean’s never had this much caffeine in his veins in his whole life, but he can’t help but think it is worth it.

 

 

  
It started simply enough: After four hours of recording a few episodes of a long Let’s Play series back to back Sean needed to stretch his legs a little bit.  
  
The new cashier was a pleasant surprise. The man was very obviously foreign: no one from Ireland can quite reach that tone of sun kissed complexion. Sean immediately felt bad for the poor fabric of the guy’s uniform; it was stretched taut on his wide shoulders and thick biceps. As Sean approached the counter the man looked up at him from behind thick black framed glasses and a mess of black hair. Sean was already really enjoying the eye-candy, but then the new cashier opened his mouth.  
  
With a bright smile the cashier greeted him “Hello, how can I serve you today?”  
  
Sean stumbled a little before reaching the counter. _My god, that is a voice and a half_. Sean was glad that he was the only one ordering at the moment, at least he could take a moment to compose himself before answering. He’d be mortified if the first thing that came out from his mouth turned out to be something embarrassing. So, Sean swallowed his urge to order a tall glass of new cashier, and his impulse to ask the man how many people he’d impregnated with his voice alone.  
  
“I’ll have a caramel latte, please, to go.”  
  
The cashier took his order and name like the usual procedure, but after handing Sean his change back, he stopped.  
  
“Is that a Reaper shirt?”  
  
“Huh? This?” Sean looked down at his own chest, gingerly plucking at the fabric. “Yeah, yeah it is.”  
  
“Oh cool! Is he your main?” The cashier visibly perked up.  
  
“No, not really… I’m more of a Junkrat myself, but you can’t really find cool shirts of him.”  
  
“I’m not really a shoot ‘em up kind of gamer, but Overwatch was surprisingly fun t o play with friends.” The cashier leaned over, resting his elbows on the counter to look at Sean over his glasses, “I don’t really have a favorite hero, though…” He drawled clearly giving Sean an opening to keep talking about the subject.  
  
“I can do a mean Reaper impression!” Sean exclaimed a little too eager to keep the conversation going.  
  
“Really?” The man leaned even farther over the counter sounding excited, “Now you have to do it for me.”  
  
Sean colored a little, but powered through the shy response to the other man’s charming smile. “ _Die, die, die, die_!” He said in his best Reaper impression.  
  
“Whoa, that’s actually pretty good!”  
  
“Thanks…” Sean paused for a second trying to feel out the mood. He was a little scared of being too obnoxious and bothering this poor guy who was just trying to do his job. Sean tried pressing on, the poor guy was probably really bored with the late afternoon lull in customers anyway. “But I like to mess around with it too: ‘You’re not my real dad, Steve. I’m going to my room.’” Sean said in his Reaper voice. “Edge lord is too funny not to mess around with.”  
  
“Huhuhuhuh, nice.” Oh no, even his laughter was cute. “I wonder if I can pull off a McCree… Maybe if I put on my ‘murican accent…” The man broke eye contact with Sean just long enough to look at the clock mounted on the wall next to him. “ _It’s five twenty-seven_.”  
  
Sean couldn’t take it. That deep voice pulling an inaccurate high-noon was way funnier than it should be. Sean couldn’t stop giggling.  
  
Sean’s latte came way sooner than he felt was fair. He was really enjoying his conversation with the new guy! At least he found some comfort in the fact that they _both_ pouted with the arrival of the barista.  
  
“Well, I guess I’ll see you around then…” Sean took a quick peek down at the Man’s nametag, “Mark.” It suited him.  
  
“Here’s your coffee, Sean. See you around.”  
  
Before the giddy feeling could really settle on his chest, Sean glanced down at his travel cup, and there, scrawled in big blocky letters was… not his name.  
  
**SHAUN**  
  
“Uh… That’s not how you spell my name…” Sean said a little awkwardly.  
  
“Oh… _Oh_! I’m sorry…” Mark’s easy smile dropped in mortification and surprise, but then, in a flash, Sean could see a weird glint of _something_ shining in Mark’s eyes. “Well, I guess you’ll have to keep coming back until I learn how spell it right. I promise I’ll try harder next time.” Mark smirked… _flirtatiously_? No, that had to be Sean’s wishful thinking.  
  
“Yeah, I guess I will.” Sean bit his lip a little awkwardly and waved Mark goodbye when he exited the shop.  
  
At least the cup with his misspelled name made for a great tweet later.

 

 

  
Mark hoped he didn’t seem creepy.  
  
He always liked talking to customers: socializing and getting people to smile was great fun. He jumped to the opportunity when he saw something videogame related, and yeah, maybe he got a little flirty there in the middle, but the guy had really pretty blue eyes, could you really blame him? At least the customer seemed into him.  
  
But just as Mark was starting to consider giving the guy his number…  
  
What an embarrassing situation.  
  
Sean (Shawn? Shawne?) was interesting, and funny, and adorable. It would suck if he turned out to be one of _those_ customers. You know, the types who always blow little mistakes out of proportion. And Mark really wanted to see him again.  
  
The idea popped in his head before he was even done apologizing.  
  
He just needed to create an excuse to keep him coming back! As soon as the customer was out the door Mark ran to his coworker that was currently in charge of making the drinks. He startled the poor man so much he almost dropped a can of whipped cream, but he ended up with all the information he wanted. Apparently the customer was somewhat of a regular: not really consistent with his visits, but certainly a familiar face, and most importantly: a familiar _name_.  
  
Mark spent the rest of his shift cooking up the details of his plan.

 

 

  
“Actually my name is spelled with an E-A…” Sean said as Mark picked up his marker ready to scribble on yet another variation of his name.  
  
“Oh, ok then, I’ll try my best.” Mark replied with his best smile, briefly running his eyes through the list of misspellings tucked away just out of view of the customers. He spent a whole afternoon compiling different ways to mess up Sean’s name, from the most innocent name variations to the most atrocious misspellings. The list was about 30 names long.  
  
It was Sean’s third visit since his first accidental misspelling, and Mark had no idea if his plan was working or not. For now Sean seemed mostly confused, probably wondering why Mark hadn’t asked him to spell his name out for him yet, but still he made no real attempts to teach Mark how to write his name properly.  
  
They spent their time talking about games once again until the barista finished preparing the drink and handed it over to Mark.  
  
“Here’s your drink, Sean.” Mark passed over the drink a bit anxiously, trying to cover up how nervous he felt with a flirty smile.  
  
“It’s wrong again.” Sean said in a soft voice, frowning down at his travel cup with **SHEAUN** written in big bold letters.  
  
Sean raised his confused gaze and started, “Mark…” but then he stopped talking once again.  
  
Mark’s heart was stuck in his throat. _Is this it? Did I go too far?_ Mark bit his lower lip.  
  
“Come back again! I- I’ll… I’ll try harder next time.” Mark stumbled over his words in his haste to convince Sean to stick around.  
  
“I guess…” Sean looked confused, but waved Mark goodbye anyway. Mark crossed his fingers hoping to see him again.

 

 

  
Sean was browsing through the SeanSepticEye tag on Tumblr. He had just posted a picture of his Mocha Frappuccino with the latest misspelling.  


_New cashier still can’t get my name right haha_

  
The picture received quite a lot of notes. At least the community had taken to the joke, even if the whole situation made him very confused. The whole thing felt a little staged: how could a man jump straight to the most unusual spellings of his name even after Sean gave him a really strong hint? Sean wondered if that was Mark’s way of telling him he was overstaying his welcome. Maybe he was hinting that Sean should shut up and wait for his coffee quietly like other people did. It just didn’t seem to add up with Mark’s behavior! Why then did the man always start up a conversation before Jack could walk away from the counter? Why did he always invite him to come back?  
  
Sean scrolled further down, coming across a compilation of gifs from a couple of his recent videos, all with the same theme: Sean mentioning his coffee misspellings. He had this bad habit of spilling out whatever he had in mind whenever he had quiet moments in his let’s plays to fill out, and this whole incident was running through his mind a quite a lot lately.  
  
What really caught his attention, though, was the message written by the person who posted the gifs. Right there tucked under the links to the source videos was a line of commentary:  


_Did Sean even stop to consider that this girl could be trying to flirt with him? LOL_

  
Sean flushed, almost stabbing himself in the eye with his Frappuccino straw in his distraction. God, how _embarrassing_. The post had a little over nine hundred notes already. Mark was charming, yes, he could see that, but going as far as to say that he was flirting? Sean shook his head. He was way out of Sean’s league for that. Besides, this person only suggested flirting because they thought the new cashier was a girl, surely if they knew the truth they wouldn’t push romantic connotations into the weird misspellings.  
  
Better stop misinformation before it could spread even more: Sean reblogged the post adding a quick message of his own.  


_New cashier is actually a guy and I don’t think I’m his type at all haha :P  
  
_

There. That way he could stop the shipping before it even began. Mark was probably just trying to get him to come back, right?

 

 

  
“It’s like the sea, but with the letter N at the end.”  
  
“Ok, I _think_ I got it now.” There it was, that weird glint in Mark’s eyes again. Sean tried to see what he was writing down on the cup but his view was blocked by the screen of the till.  
  
Mark rested his elbows on the counter, resting his face on his hands. His face got a little squished from the position, but it only made him look really adorable. “D’you know what I miss?” He said.  
  
Sean had to pull himself back to the conversation. “Yeah?”  
  
“Old Newgrounds games. They were sooo awesome.”  
  
“You think?”  
  
“Yeah, of course! They were like, such creative little games, cause they were super simple, but _man_ , the stories they created!”  
  
“You sound really passionate about them.”  
  
Mark hid his face behind his hands. “Yeah I guess I kinda am.”  
  
“I never really got into the whole flash game stuff, to be honest, but I wouldn’t mind some recommendations.” Jack smiled.  
  
The cashier perked up, coming out of his hiding. “Sure, I’m glad to give ‘em to you. God, it just brings back so many memories of being bored at school…”  
  
“Heh, now you are just bored at a coffee-shop.” Sean giggled at his own remark.  
  
“I’m never bored when _you_ come around” Mark looked at Sean from under his lashes and Sean’s heart did a little flip inside his chest for a second. He hoped he didn’t blush too noticeably.  
  
They kept eye contact for a long time, the weird tension just hanging in the air between them, until the barista nudged at Mark with Sean’s travel cup in hand.  
  
Mark laughed off his staring a little awkwardly, like it was nothing more than a joke, and finally broke eye contact.  
  
“Here’s your order, Sean. I really think I got it right this time.”  
  
**CN**  
  
That was it. Just **CN**. Sean stared in disbelief at the “name” (if you could call it that) scribbled on the cup in Mark’s now familiar handwriting.  
  
“C with the letter N at the end… right?” Mark asked in a smug tone of voice.  
  
Sean blinked up at Mark’s face, and looked back down to his cup. A grin tugged at the corner of Sean’s lips. **CN**. He burst into laughter.  
  
“Ok, now I know you’re definitely messin’ with me on purpose!” Sean said between giggles.  
  
Mark had the biggest shit-eating grin. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”  
  
“Oh, now I want to see how long you can keep this up.” Sean pointed at him accusingly, still smiling hard enough to hurt his cheeks. “I guess I’ll just have to come by again, right?”  
  
“Yeah, seems like it.” Mark smiled back proudly.  
  
“Alright then.” Jack grabbed his cup and started heading towards the door, head up, ready to wave Mark goodbye. “Oh! And when I come back you can give me that rec list of flash games!” He reminded.  
  
“I will!” Mark waved back at him from the counter. “See you soon, Sean.”  
  
Sean took a quick picture of his cup on his way home. Posted on his instagram with a quick reenactment of their dialogue and shared in all his other social media.  


_“Just write sea with the letter N at the end.”_

_“Ok.”_

_Now I know he’s fucking with me!_

  
He read through a few of the comments that started coming in. He still had a stupid smile in his face by the time he finished his coffee. Sean was certain his interaction with Mark made him more energized than any coffee ever could.

 

 

  
It became a meme.  
  
Every new cup Sean couldn’t help but find hilarious made its way into his instagram page. And Mark did not disappoint: Chone, Shawon, Shonn, Shone, the list went on and on. The SSE community apparently found it as entertaining as he did. SeanSepticEye Happy Wheels levels usually had short notes from the level creators in them, but after the increase of Coffee Misspelling popularity the notes were addressed to a variety of names.  


_Hello Sean/Shean/Shaun…_

  
The comments section on his videos were riddled with new subscribers absolutely lost with the new joke.  


_Why are people calling him Shawn in the comments, I thought his name was SeanSepticEye?_

_No his name is Shone_

_No his name is Shawne_

_No his name is Shamu_

  
Sean embraced all of it. Flooded his Instagram with pictures of coffee, reblogged “SeanSepticEye name compilations”, and talked about his coffee runs on videos. But the extent of the joke only really hit him when he’s gathering up comments to answer on his RYC series.  
  
He selected just three questions to answer on his video, but the process of picking them out was extensive. Sean ignored some of the most common ones out of respect for Mark’s privacy: he’d never give out Barista Guy’s real name or the location of the café; he didn’t even feel comfortable answering what Mark looked like. But some questions felt innocent enough, like: “What’s your favorite misspelling so far?”, “How long have the misspelling been going on?”  
  
It wasn’t long either before some strange posts started popping up on the main tag: beautiful edits of coffee beans, foam art, pictures of Sean smiling, hands holding mugs, and some random handsome guy.  
  
It confused the hell out of Sean at first, mostly because it was always different guys. At first he thought it might’ve been a new youtuber or something, but the tags showed nothing specific. Reversed google image searching just led him to random models and stock images.  
  
It took him finding an edited gif of Tom Hiddleston making heart eyes at him with the dialogue in the subtitles altered to something about his name to finally understand what was going on.  
  
_Tom Hiddleston was Mark_.  
  
Well, _obviously_ Tom wasn’t actually Mark, but he was a representation of Mark, they all were. The buff redheads, the tattooed badasses, the frail looking blonds, they were all supposed to be Mark.  
  
The SSE fandom was shipping him with someone they had never even seen and creatively building their own image of what he should look like. It was fascinating!  
  
Sean finds a tag in common with all those posts: #Septicoffee. And in that tag he finds all kinds of different things: fanarts, edits, gifs, fan videos, even fanfics; all about the imaginary romance between Sean and his barista.  
  
There was even a post trying to guess Mark’s name based on his estimated age, location, and name popularity in Ireland. They were getting it so wrong it was hilarious. They might as well call him Sheamus Finnigan McIrishFace. Apparently Mark being a buff Irish ginger was a universally accepted fact, with a couple of posts even going as far as to detail the beautiful dusting of freckles across his creamy pale skin.  
  
Every now and then there was a post bringing a different imagining of the barista’s looks and personality, from sweet and shy to rough and cocky, from tall and imposing to small and frail. They were bound to get it right eventually.

 

_Imagine Barista Guy with coffee brown eyes, as sweet and warm as the drinks he makes._

 

Sean smiled. That was getting closer, but Mark never actually prepared his drink, he was just the cashier. Secretly Sean liked it better that way: with Mark being a cashier they had more time to talk while someone else prepared the drinks.

 

_Imagine his brown eyes lighting up every time Sean walks through the door._

_Imagine his eyes tracing Sean’s lips when he takes a sip._

_Eyes that get so dark they’re almost black when he pins Sean against the counter and fucks him._

 

Sean jostled back in his seat as he read the last line: he really wasn’t expecting it to go that far. He had scrolled through the more graphic kinds of posts thinking nothing of them just a few minutes ago, so why did this one surprise him so much?  Maybe because it was the first one that was accurate to the real Mark? He wasn’t sure.  
  
He never really paid attention to Mark’s eyes as he entered the shop. Did they light up at the sight of him? Sean blushed. No, that was too much wishful thinking. He had more than enough internet for the day. It was time to logout of tumblr and turn off his computer for a bit, before he got anymore silly ideas and started fantasizing about Mark’s coffee colored eyes.

 

 

  
Sean was having a good day. Editing and thumbnails went smoothly and Sean used the extra time to hop in the shops. He'd been neglecting his grocery shopping for a while. It's always nice to have some real food to fill his pantry with for once. As much as Sean liked take-out he was probably worrying his delivery guy already.  
  
It's only natural for him to stretch his trip to the coffee shop, never mind the grocery cart he was dragging around, Sean earned his little coffee break.  
  
Mark wasn't behind the counter. Sean looked up when he was about to reach the counter expecting to see Mark's usual bright smile and greeting, but there he found the somewhat familiar face of the old cashier. He thought this was Mark's usual shift, maybe he was sick or something? Suddenly Sean didn't really feel like having a cup of coffee anymore.  
  
Before Sean could turn around and walk away the woman called out to him. “Are you Sean?”  
  
Caught by surprise Sean nodded.  
  
“Cool!” The woman turned to the barista standing behind her. “Hey, Mark, your regular is here!”  
  
It was Mark! It felt so unusual to see him manning the drinks, Sean didn’t even notice him at all at first. The man turned around with the mention of “his regular” and immediately broke into that now familiar bright smile, from this close Jack could see his brown eyes _did_ light up, just like that one post said.  
  
“Hey, Sean, surprised to see me here?”  
  
“Uhm, a little, yeah.” Sean said a little hesitantly, wondering if it was ok to talk over the old cashier like she wasn’t just standing there. “What the hell are you doing back there anyway?”  
  
“The manager finally let me make the drinks! I’m not really the best at doing the artsy stuff, but I convinced him I needed the practice.”  
  
“I was kind of hoping you’d practice writing my name some more, actually.” Sean said.  
  
“I’m sure Steph will let me write it, right?” Mark faced the old cashier with ridiculous puppy eyes complete with an over exaggerated pout.  
  
“Sure. Just let me process the order and you can write his name all you want.”  
  
Sean briefly considered trolling Mark a little bit, maybe ordering something fancy and complicated. Then for a moment considered ordering something simple, but worried that it would offend Mark, like it was an underestimation of his skill as a barista. He settled for a middle of the road cinnamon cappuccino. He wanted Mark to be happy with his choice, maybe his eyes would light up all pretty again…  
  
Mark looked like an excited puppy when he brought over the finished beverage, almost bouncing in place with all his energy. “C’mon, try it!”  
  
Sean brought the cup to his lips unintentionally focusing on how Mark’s gaze followed his every move. Sean licked at the edge of the cup distractedly before taking a sip. In his peripheral vision he could see Mark was still looking. _God, why does it feel so good to have him look at me?_ Sean wondered. _It must be because of that post_.  


  
_...Eyes that get so dark they’re almost black when he pins Sean against the counter and fucks him…_  


  
Before Sean could even register the taste of his cappuccino it went flying everywhere as Sean spit out his mouthful in surprise. His stupid brain filling out the missing part of that damned post and sending him a nice mental picture.  
  
Sean coughed breathlessly. He'd definitely inhaled some of his drink.  
  
“Oh my god, Sean, are you ok?!” for a second it looked like Mark was considering hopping over the counter, but thankfully he seemed to remember his manners and simply walked around the corner to reach Sean. “Oh god, it's that bad, I'm so sorry.”  
  
Between wheezing gasps Sean tried to reassure him. “I'm fine, I'm fine, it's just… hot.” Sean could feel his face heating up, he hoped Mark would think his red face had to do with his coughing fit.  
  
“I'm so sorry. Do you need something? Here, let me grab you some ice water.”  
  
Before Mark could turn away Sean grabbed onto his uniform and tugged him back, immediately releasing him once he realized what he had done. _Oh god this blush is never going away._  
  
“I'm good... You're good. A-at making coffee I mean! It's good. The cappuccino. Very good. I just need a second to cool down. I mean the coffee! The coffee needs to cool down…” Sean barely stuttered out.  
  
Mark still looked concerned, but at least he wasn't trying to run off again. “Are you sure you don't want Steph to make you a new cup? I'm sure she wouldn't mind.”  
  
“I'm sure, Mark.” Sean managed a gentle smile. It was the first time he ever stood this close to Mark, he couldn't help taking in all the details. Sean did a quick sweep of Mark. Up and down. “Hey, you have legs!”  
  
Mark's concerned expression gave way to giggling “Yeah I do. I guess this is the first time you're seeing them.” Mark smiled down at him for a while longer, but after a few seconds he broke away from Sean and got back behind the counter, disappearing behind the pastry display for a bit.  
  
“Here.” Mark handed over a tiny paper bag and some napkins. “Some cookies for your trouble. Don't worry, they're on me.”  
  
“At least let me help you clean this up.” Sean gathered up the napkins and mopped up the worst of the spillage.  
  
“It's fine! Just go home and put your groceries away before they spoil.” Said Mark, waving him away with a wet rag, ready to clean up Sean's mess.  
  
Sean opened his mouth to protest, but was interrupted before he could say anything.  
  
“Just promise me you'll come by again and we're even.”  
  
Sean feigned an exasperated sigh. “Why do I feel like I got the good end of the deal?”  
  
“Oh, believe me, you _didn't_. You're gonna have to taste my terrible coffee again.”  
  
“Wow I'm dreading it already!” Sean continued the joke fondly stashing his free cookies on one of his bags and picking up his now warm cup of coffee. Sheaughn, this time. “I'll see you soon, Mark. And try to get my name right next time!” Sean couldn't reciprocate Mark's wave goodbye with his busy hands, so he did the best he could: a quick wink and a smile.

 

 

  
Mark stood there waving at nothing long after Sean had already left. _Wow_ , he thought, _Sean looks really cute when he winks_. Mark wasn’t sure how messing up a cappuccino led to such a great result, but if that was all it took to get a wink, he’d try bothering his manager more often.  
  
“Hand it over, lover boy.” Came the voice of his co-worker, startling Mark out of his frozen position.  
  
“Huh?”  
  
“The money for the cookies, hand it over.”  
  
“What? right now?”  
  
Steph waved a hand in front of his face, like she was trying to wake him up, “Yeah, genius, the cookies are on you, not on the house.”  
  
Mark pushed her hand away with a huff. “Okay, okay, I’ll grab my wallet! Stop with the wavey hand, I get it!”  
  
“So... when are you gonna ask him out?” Steph said, leaning against the counter.  
  
Mark paused for a second.  
  
“Who?” He asked carefully, a little unsure if he should be revealing his preference to Steph.  
  
“Mark, fer’ fuck’s sake anyone can tell you’ve got a crush the size of Russia for that boy.”  
  
“I’m just trying to gauge if he’s interested or not.” Mark pouted, handing over a couple of bills.  
  
“Are you blind or just timid?”  
  
“Hey!”  
  
“I’m serious. How long have you been gauging his interest for anyway?”  
  
“I’ll do it eventually. I just have like, eight misspellings to go through.”  
  
“And then what? Are ya gonna draw a heart in his latte for eight months?”  
  
“Nooooo…” Mark said. He wasn’t really sure what would be his next step... but he still had time, right? He just didn’t want to push Sean away, that’s all.  
  
Steph gave Mark his change back with a pointed look and a single raised eyebrow.  
  
He tried keeping the silence going, but folded under her gaze. “...I suck at foam art anyway, it’d probably end up looking like a dick or something embarrassing.” He said in a small voice, ducking his head.  
  
“Then I’ll teach you.” Mark raised his head with hope in his eyes. “ _If_ you promise me you’ll ask him out.”  
  
Mark beamed at Steph. It was a small thing, really, but he appreciated the thought. Now, he just needed to get good at foam art.

 

 

  
It was hopeless, Mark couldn’t make a decent latte design to save his life. He couldn't really convince his manager to let him be in charge of preparing the drinks all that much, since obviously it was very convenient for the store that they could get the lower skilled worker out of the complicated stuff and have the most outgoing doing customer service at the same time, but Mark could also use his people skills for personal gain (if you could call it that.) He set up an arrangement with his co-workers: sometimes, when the movement was slow and the manager wouldn't notice Mark would sneak to the preparation area and work on the drinks for a bit. He tried doing simple stuff: some leaf designs, a simple heart, maybe some stenciled drawings that should be easy enough for a beginner. It didn't really work. He ended up with cloudy blobs of creamer and muddled distorted shapes. Mark just wanted to draw a simple heart! Was that too much to ask? He just wanted to make his intentions clear so Sean wouldn't get the wrong idea.  
  
It was the last misspelling on his list. It was his last chance to gather courage and ask Sean out, he had to do it right.  
  
Mark’s heart was beating out of his chest through the whole process of taking Sean's order. Suggesting a latte just to make sure he could try his foam art skills. Mark crossed out the final misspelling on his list and wrote down SHOUM on the cup. Sean was obviously very chatty and excited, but Mark could barely focus on the conversation. He took Sean's cup to the preparation area and did his best to follow the tips Seph gave him a few weeks back.  
  
It was going ok, he just needed to pour the steamed milk right in the center of the cup until the foam formed a nice circle on top of the espresso and angle it properly at the end to drag the design into it. _Fuck_. The foam was off center. Mark stopped his pouring and readjusted the angle, trying to bring it a little closer to the opposite edge. **_Fuck_**. That was too much! He ended up with two asymmetrical blobs of milk, like a short snowman or maybe a number 8. _God fucking damn it_! He decided to wing it. Grabbing the closest bottle of syrup (probably chocolate or almond, he couldn't tell) Mark put a tiny drop on each blob and drew a tiny v-shape between them. It came out looking like a somewhat cross eyed smiley face. It would have to do. Mark took it over to Sean, mentally going over what he'd say to ask him out.

 

 

  
“Mark... why does my coffee have googly eyes?” Sean's first reaction effectively smashed Mark's already shaky confidence.  
  
“It's uhm… happy to see you! Look, It's smiling!” He tried to justify his mistake.  
  
“I can see that. I really want to take a picture of it.” at least Sean had a smile on his face, but as soon as he pulled out his phone, with obvious intentions to take a picture of Mark's fail right then and there Mark had to protest.  
  
“Sean, noooo,” he whined, “It's ugly!”  
  
“It's adorable.” Sean stated confidently. “Did you make it yourself?”  
  
He could hear the sound of Sean's phone camera shutter. “Yeah…”  
  
“It's adorable.” Sean said once again, looking up at Mark's eyes with his beautiful smile. “Thank you.”  
  
Mark blushed and ducked his head. “It was supposed to be a-” _heart_ “a… leaf design, but I poured the milk wrong. It was that stupid face or a weird little snowman.”  
  
“Mark, I know Irish weather is shit, but we're in spring.”  
  
“A late snowman then. It would be a good excuse for his weird shape, he's just melting a little.”  
  
Sean giggled a little. “A _late_ snowman.”  
  
Mark hesitated, maybe that was the moment. The right moment to ask him out. Mark opened his mouth...  
  
“It could be a pair of boobs.” …and chickened out.  
  
“A pair of boobs?” Sean tilted his head a little bit squinting down at his cup.  
  
“Yeah! Just ignore the little smile and it looks like boobs.”  
  
“Oh my god you're absolutely right! Even the left one is slightly bigger than the other one!”  
  
“Professional latte artist, highly detailed foam porn.” seeing Sean losing his shit over his shitty foam design was so satisfying and Mark terrified of losing that.  
  
“Oh Mark… I don't think I can drink this now, I don't want to mess up your artwork.”  
  
“You can always come back again and I can make you another unique design.” Mark just wanted to keep him around.  
  
“Alright then,” Mark couldn't help staring as Sean brought the cup to his lips running his tongue lightly on the rim. “We have a deal.” Sean licked the foam gathered on his top lip before Mark could process how much he wanted to lick it clean himself.  
  
“I'll see you soon then, Sean.”  
  
“Yes you will.”  
  
Mark breathed a sigh of relief as he waved Sean goodbye. He bought himself some extra time to try to ask Sean out, now he just needed some new misspellings.

 

 

  
Mark was putting it off. He was fully aware that he was putting it off, but still he made no real effort to come up with new names to call Sean. Perhaps it was time to finally grow some balls and change his tactics: a real plan of how to ask Sean out. In a couple of days Sean would walk in, order his drink like usual and expect a new misspelling like he always did, but this time Mark wouldn’t write his name at all.  
  
He mentally went over how the situation would play out: Mark would write his own phone number instead of a name. Would Sean be really confused? Would he refuse the drink? Maybe Mark could save himself from a possible rejection by saying that they should just hang out as friends…  
  
The flash of bright green hair startled Mark out of his imagined scenario. Sean was walking over to the counter looking gorgeous and blue-eyed as always. Even if Mark was really happy to see him again, it felt way too soon. Sean wasn’t exactly predictable in his visits, but most of the time he left at least a couple of days gap between his coffee runs. Mark was nowhere near ready to ask him out for real yet. He’d just have to come up with something quick, a name he hadn’t used yet, god why was it so difficult?  
  
“Hey Mark, I had to do something around the area today and I thought I’d drop by for another smiley latte. D’ya think you can make me another one?” Oh god, why did Sean have to be so cute?  
  
“Uh, that ugly thing? are you sure you want another one of those?” Mark was stalling for time, he just needed a little longer to think of a name. C’mon, just _think_!  
  
“Of course I do! It was really funny and adorable.” That was it! Sean liked when Mark was funny, he just needed to write down something funny…  
  
“So, you want a medium classic latte again?”  
  
“Yeah. One special Mark-made medium classic latte, please.”  
  
“Only the most-est special-est latte for you, Sean.” It made no sense at all, it was so damn easy to flirt with him, what the hell was holding him back from actually asking Sean out on a date?  
  
He just needed a name, any name.  
  
_Any_ name...  
  
That was it!  
  
“Uhh Mark… Are you okay? Your face changed there for a second... uh- not that I was staring or anything.”  
  
“I’m great!”  
  
He was just going to write any name: just a common male name.  
  
John. No, that was too close to Sean.  
  
Bob? Nah, it’d be better if it had the same amount of letters.  
  
Maybe… Yeah! That’d be perfect.  
  
Mark quickly scribbled the name on Sean’s cup and moved over to the preparation area. Apparently the secret to making a decent heart latte art was having your hands shaking from anxiety, because that was his best result yet. Sure it wasn't as clean and beautiful, but no one could deny that it was a heart.  
  
“Ooops, I think I messed up your smiley face. I hope you like the end result anyway.” Mark said as he brought over the cup. Now he just needed to see Sean's reaction.

 

 

  
Sean followed his first instinct and immediately looked around the cup to find his misspelled name. Mark's blocky letters already a familiar comfort.  
  
**JACK**  
  
Wait… what?  
  
Sean blinked down at the cup, half expecting it to change before his eyes.  
  
Nope, still **JACK**.  
  
For a second Sean wondered if Mark had somehow mixed up his order, but it was so absurd, so ridiculous, and knowing Mark's sense of humor it just had to be on purpose. It was the best one so far.  
  
Sean bit his lip to try and contain the laughter he could feel bubbling up his chest. He looked up to check Mark's expression. Mark looked a little nervous and excited, his brown eyes had that same charming glint about them, just like the first time they met.  
  
“So... do you like it?” he asked.  
  
And Sean couldn't control himself anymore. He burst into laughter right then and there. “This has got to be your best attempt so far.” Sean said between giggles ducking his head a little.  
  
“Did I get it right?” Mark smiled, leaning forwards on the counter separating them.  
  
“Oh Mark…”  
  
“J-A-C-K Sean. That's how you spell your name, right? J-A-C-K.” Mark leaned even closer, clearly enjoying the reactions Sean was having to his teasing.  
  
The question pushed a fresh round of giggles from Sean, he could feel his eyes starting to water. “You know what? Yeah. That's _exactly_ how you spell my name.” Sean looked up to find Mark's beautiful dark eyes much closer than he expected and ducked his head down quickly before his blush had a chance to spread. It was then he noticed the delicate heart shaped foam decorating his coffee.  
  
Sean's giggles slowly died down and they were left with this weirdly charged silence. Mark was leaning so close to him…  
  
Mark was acting a little strange for a while now, Sean could see it in his body language. And wasn't that weird? He could tell something was bothering Mark just from the way he moved around, yet they never even talked outside of these short coffee runs. It sounded like something out of a Septicoffee fanfic… He probably should stop reading so much Septicoffee fanfic.  
  
Most of them didn't even come close to Mark's personality and looks, but the few that did…  
  
The fanfics helped in one thing most of all: Sean couldn't really ignore his attraction anymore. He only hoped they were right about Mark returning his feelings, otherwise the move he was about to pull would be way beyond stupid.  
  
“D’ya want to maybe-” Sean started.  
  
“Hey, do you want to go-” only to realize Mark had started to ask him something as well.  
  
They both stopped in the middle of their sentences. Mark looked down and ran his tongue across his bottom lip.  
  
“Uhm… you first.” Mark said.  
  
“I uhh…” Sean breathed in deep and forced out the rest of his sentence, “I wanted to ask if maybe you'd like to maybe hang out sometime?”  
  
Sean heard Mark's unmistakable laughter and looked up at him with, ready to apologize for misreading the situation.  
  
“I was just about to ask if you wanted to go out with _me_.” Mark ran his tongue over his bottom lip again. “Just don't take me out for coffee, please. That's my only limit.”  
  
“God we're both huge dorks, aren't we?”  
  
“Yeah, probably.”  
  
“What took you so long? Why today?” Sean wondered out loud.  
  
“I uh… I ran out of names.” Mark answered awkwardly.  
  
Suddenly they were both giggling again, like the huge dorks they were.  
  
In the end, Sean saves his number on Mark's phone as JACK and takes the final misspelling picture: this time a selfie with Mark himself holding the lukewarm forgotten cup of coffee towards the camera.

 

 

  
So maybe Sean developed a minor coffee addiction, but he honestly thinks it’s worth it. Meeting Mark that afternoon sure changed a lot of things for the better. That final misspelling selfie took off more than any of its predecessors, Sean changed his tumblr, instagram and twitter bios to include his new nickname, and it didn’t take any time at all for the rest of his fandom to catch on the joke. It’s now his official nickname, even other youtubers who collab with him call him Jack now.  
  
Speaking of collabs, after their first date Mark and him decided to share their love of gaming through online multiplayer games. It was a fun activity to do when they weren’t really free to go out in person. Mark was quite shocked to find out Sean had a good few million subs on the SeanSepticEye channel, but he got into the whole YouTube Let’s Player scene pretty quick, just yet another hobby for them to share. Mark even started actively looking for and suggesting games for him to play on the channel.  
  
The shift in their relationship only made Sean mention Mark even more in his videos. He didn’t really specify the extent of their relationship (some things were better kept as a secret,) but casual mentions of his name, telling the viewers the current game was suggested by Mark, commenting about how fun the multiplayer feature was to play with him. Soon enough the SeanSepticEye community was clamoring for a video with Mark.  
  
Following through with their request was probably one of their best decisions.  
  
They started with something simple: some Gmod maps, a couple of coop survival games, no webcams for Mark. The community loved it! and more importantly Mark and Sean loved it. Recording together turned out to be really fun, in fact, Mark loved it so much he even decided to create his own YouTube channel.  
  
And so Mark became Markiplier. Timidly starting out but quickly making his way into the YouTube scene. It is still a little hard to balance his hours of working at the coffeeshop with his hours of doing youtube, but Mark is a fast learner and Sean had no doubts that he’d be able to do youtube as a full-time job soon. Either way, Sean is ridiculously proud of his boyfriend and will support him every step of the way.  
  
The Septicoffee portion of the fandom kept surprisingly active through all of the changes, even though it seems like now they prefer going by Septiplier. Sean still browses around their tags sometimes, when he’s feeling a little bored and lonely. Comparing how much of their headcanons they get right is actually pretty fun.  
  
“Jaaack, what are you doing still awake? Get off tumblr and go to sleep already.” Comes the whiny voice from the opposite side of the bed.  
  
“It’s the light from my screen, isn’t it? Sorry, I just can’t sleep tonight.” Sean rolls over to plant a soft kiss on Mark’s forehead. “Must be because of all that coffee.”  
  
“I told you not to order the double espresso.” Mark tugs him closer and bites at Sean’s lower lip as if to chide him, but soothes the bite with his tongue soon after, pulling him into a warm kiss.    
  
“Hmmm, I guess you gotta tire me out somehow. I wonder how you can do that…” Sean murmurs against Mark’s lips, barely breaking the kiss to speak.  
  
Mark grabs firmly onto Sean’s hips and sets him down comfortably on top of his lap. From this close Sean can see Mark’s eyes darkening up till they were almost black. He giggles to himself as he recalls that one tumblr post. _Oh well_ , he thinks as he melts down into Mark’s embrace, _they were bound to get it right eventually_.

**Author's Note:**

> Special thanks to [Headphones_and_Notebooks](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Headphones_and_Notebooks/pseuds/Headphones_and_Notebooks) and [writtenFIRES](http://archiveofourown.org/users/writtenFIRES/pseuds/writtenFIRES) for motivating me to finish this fic


End file.
